With nearly 300 disputes, the firm is perceived as one of the top law firms for arbitration and litigation. This strong focus on disputes means that whenever you instruct us, you will always get the very best strategic and technical, as well as commercial, advice.
Clients are increasingly turning to arbitration to resolve complex international disputes. We have a dedicated team of arbitration lawyers who advise on the effective drafting of arbitration clauses, including on choice of forum, and have considerable experience of dealing with cases before major arbitration institutions.
We operate across industry sector groups and can count on excellent sector knowledge in addition to arbitration and dispute resolution skills.
We have substantial experience handling bilateral and multilateral investment treaty disputes under the auspices of the Cairo Regional Center for International Commercial Arbitration (CRCICA), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), in addition to other arbitral bodies. We also represent clients in ad hoc arbitrations, and in arbitration-related proceedings in first instance and appellate courts, including enforcement proceedings.
We are regularly instructed on significant commercial disputes arising in virtually every industry sector including telecommunications, insurance, defence, projects, construction and engineering, energy and natural resources, commodities, oil and gas, chemicals, banking and financial services, transportation, international trade, manufacturing, leisure, environmental, pharmaceuticals, life sciences and insurance. This is in addition to disputes arising from shareholder and joint venture agreements. We combine this deep sector knowledge with significant international arbitration and dispute resolution skills.
We represent a wide variety of clients, including corporations, investors (local and international), governments and state-owned enterprises.
We also have well-established relationships with lawyers throughout the world, including in many countries where it may be more difficult to locate a reliable local counsel.
Typically, our clients instruct us as disputes start to develop. Very often, we support our clients in the gathering of evidence (factual and expert) and help them develop their claims and defence. In other cases, our clients instruct us after claims have been made, or arbitration started, against them. On those occasions, we move quickly to ensure our clients’ interests are unharmed and remain fully protected, and that the best form of defence is presented at the right time and opportunity.
At the same time, we are mindful that alternative forms of dispute resolution may be more appropriate, and we regularly advise clients on mediation and other forms of early dispute resolution.
In all cases, we work hand in hand with our clients to develop dispute resolution strategies to ensure that any arbitration follows a process which is appropriate to their needs. Sometimes this may require pursuing an expedited process or taking the arbitration in stages so that key legal issues are dealt with at a preliminary stage of the proceedings.
Many cases turn on expert evidence. We recommend and work with testifying experts, many of whom are among market leaders. We provide representation in procedural and final hearings, either through our own local capabilities or through co-counsel where we have no local office or where governing or procedural laws are different to our own.
We develop a close relationship with our clients, investing time in their business to ensure that together we achieve the best results. Often this will include spending time working directly alongside their management team in their offices or in key locations where they do business.
In addition to our specific experience, we have set up several cross-practice teams focusing on particular geographic regions. A number of these include lawyers with significant international arbitration and disputes experience, including the Middle East, Africa, Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Latin America, Nordic and Russia business teams. We would be happy to provide you with more details of our capabilities and experience within these practices.
